Deadmau5: King of the “Button Pressers”

Deadmau5 decided to write a blog post called “we all press play“, acting like he’s exposing a big truth to the world. He calls out all DJ’s as being “button pressers” with nothing but a basic skill of playing other people’s music. This is true in many cases, especially for bandwagon jumping DJ’s and producers like Deadmau5. The only truth he mentioned in his usual writings of self loathing misery is that his number one skill is in the studio.

He manages to continue in his blog that fans don’t care about what the performer is doing on stage. He continues, anyone can learn what he does within 1 hour. He makes the deluded judgement, that all DJs are the same, and on par with himself. The truth is, Deadmau5 is a part of the cheapened, fake, buzz whoredome of current dance music. He is part of the reason why dance music has become as bad as it is. Producers like him have taken the skill and art of performance and cheapened it down to button pressing. Artists like Deadmau5 are the death of dance music.

What this misguided mau5 forgot to remember is that there are still truly talented electronic music performers out there. While Deadmau5 is a button presser with overpriced tickets… artists such as Atrak, DJ Craze, DJ Jazzy Jeff, AraabMuzik and others have not cheapened the craft of live performance. These are talented recording artists, djs and producers who have viable performance skills.

If I took away Deadmau5’s laptop and midi controller and put him a room with 2 turntables, a mixer and a box of vinyl… He could probably get by. But lets say Atrak walked in the room, with the same equipment. Who do you think would display more craftsmanship at button pressing? How bout DJ Craze, 5 time world DMC champion. I suppose he just presses buttons too. DJ Jazzy Jeff? These are DJs. Real DJs. Just like club DJs are real DJs, so long as they know how to mix properly and effectively excite the club and give the crowd a good time.

Atrak

DJ Jazzy Jeff & DJ AM

DJ Craze

A natural argument would be of course, that those examples are unfair: They are turntablists. True, and they are DJs… and they are music artists. But lets take it a step further. Daft Punk. Forget the pyramid. I’m talking about Daft Punk in the 90s. Back when their live setup up consisted of 2 TR-909s, A TR-808, a Juno 106, compressors and other effects. Although much of it was midi synced, I suppose the keys they played, and the patterns they were triggering, effecting and creating on stage was something we could learn in 1 hour. How about AraabMuzik? I suppose his ability to construct live music using sample hits on 2 MPC’s is simple button pressery.

AraabMuzik

Daft Punk

Deadmau5, understand that I agree with you in that many DJs are talentless hyper egos. I also believe that what you do is part of that and I’m glad you understand this. But you need to remember, that while you are a watered down version of the music I grew up with, there are still real, true live electronic artists out there. To them, I salute you. To the fans, think twice before you spend all that money on your favorite button pressers. Consider that you’re going to see a guy with a mouse mask using a laptop.

For the record, I don’t consider myself a better performer than anyone I mentioned. I make music. I DJ when I’m asked to. This is all just my opinion.